What's right in front of you
by AlternateEgo91
Summary: This is placed after 2X14 Time of Death. One by one the foundry's members leave the basement leaving only Felicity and Oliver. This deals with Felicity's feelings towards herself and Oliver post Clock King. Felicity wonders will Oliver ever see what's standing right in front of him? Will he ever let her in?


The foundry's occupants were creating their usual symphony comprised of grunts, punches, bangs and keyboard clicks.

With a final elbow to the ribs, Oliver was able to pin Dig to the mats. Sara was with Roy trying to help him with his archery. The young hero was a slow learner and Sara seemed to be the only one with enough patience to stick with him. Felicity was typing away, updating firewalls and system wide scanning technology to help future Team Arrow.

An arrow thudded into a pipe causing the lights to flicker.

"That's it! I'm over this. Arrows are stupid. You're stupid. I'm going upstairs for my shift and quite possibly to chug a bottle of tequila to myself."

Sara couldn't help but laugh at the dramatics of the red hoodie clad superhuman teenager that stood before her. "You'll get it Roy, just take some deep breaths. But, you're right, our shift is about to start."

She walked to the stairs to throw on a sparkly black tank top she had hanging. It was nothing short of a small miracle that Roy hadn't put an arrow through it during target practice. She jogged over to Oliver who was now drinking water with Dig on the mats, and stood on her tip toes to kiss his cheek. "I'll see you later." He smiled back at her as she nodded at Dig and ran back, grabbing Roy by the scruff of his neck like a small puppy. "Hey! Easy! Leaving was my idea, no need to physically harass me!"

"You're such a baby." She muttered at him as she continued to corral him up to the main floor of Verdant.

Gulping the last of his water bottle Dig started, "Well, I have dutifully completed the both of my jobs today so I'm leaving as well. Date night with Layla."

"And you don't want to take her out for a night of dancing and drinking in the hottest club in Starling City?" Oliver questioned pointing up to the ceiling thrumming with the bass of the house music.

"If I spend anymore time here, I will blow this place up. Not a threat, just a fact." Oliver's lip curled up slightly as the two men walked over toward Felicity and her computers. Dig shrugged on his jacket and put a hand on Felicity's shoulder. "Don't stay here too late."

Without looking up at him, she gave a mock salute and responded slowly, clearly stuck in a serious nerd trance, "Sir, yes sir."

He chuckled lightly and shook his head, "Good night ladies." He said turning on his heel towards the stairs. Oliver narrowed his eyes at Dig's back, but let him walk away. Oliver figured, he did just kick the older man's ass once again, he would let Dig's clearly wounded pride have the verbal jab. Oliver turned back to Felicity to see her still glued to her monitors. "Felicity" He started firmly, hoping she would finally look up. "You've been at that for hours, call it a night. Let's go up stairs. You've more than earned some time to relax and a glass of red wine from your appreciative neighborhood vigilante."

She scoffed as her fingers only continued to fly across the keyboard. Seeing no other option, he lowered his hands atop her franticly moving ones. "What do you think you are doing!" Felicity snapped, finally looking up. Her eyes were red from staring at the screen and she had noticeable dark circles under her eyes. Oliver frowned at her. "Is everything okay, Felicity?"

Felicity pulled back her small hands from his large ones. "Everything," she stared back at him fiercely "is fine."

"Right." They stared at each other, waiting on the other to back down. Oliver couldn't believe the sight before his eyes. Felicity completely silent? Making the conscious choice to not to use any words instead of her usual overabundance? "Felicity." He repeated, still frowning at her.

"There's nothing to say. I am trying to do my job." She got out of her chair and started to pull on her jacket. Reaching out to stop her he said softly, "Hey, talk to me."

"About what. I'm fine. Our firewalls are fine. No one else will ever get into that thing. I'll make damn sure of it."

Realization was finally starting to dawn on him. "Is this about the Clock King?"

"This is about doing my job. Doing what I am damn good at by the way. Did you know that I graduated first in my class?"

"Yes I did."

"And did you know that I have literally never been outdone when it came to computers. I had eight different computer science programs offer me full rides all over the country. I built my first fully functioning computer when I was nine. Hell, I was the youngest leading IT employee at QC."

"I had no idea." Oliver said quietly as he looked downward unable to keep her gaze out of guilt.

Felicity was flushed with frustration and annoyance. She was fed up with Oliver constantly taking her granted and with the week she had, her usual and bountiful amount of patience was worn out. They spent almost 20 hours a day together and he almost never asked her any personal questions. He cared for her, she knew that, she could practically feel it when he stood in her personal space, but why did he have to be so damn stubborn when it came to words? So often he was wrapped up in the Lance sister saga he didn't have time to notice her. For God sake's, Dig had to tell him that she was feeling left out when they allowed Sara join the team! Don't misunderstand, she truly liked Sara. She was kind, smart, brave and a little extra estrogen in the foundry didn't hurt. But how could a person stand in front of you for so long without being seen? He was an ass. He deserved this.

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me Oliver because you never ask." She spat. She paused, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened her eyes to stare into his, "You never let me in." His eyes never left hers so she continued.

"I get that you lean on Sara because she is familiar and you two went through hell and back on that island together but you can trust me. And Dig too. We are here for you and if I haven't proven that to you already…" Her voice trailed off clearly full of hurt. "I honestly don't know what I'm doing here. You don't even see me when I am standing right in front of you. I don't know why you are so afraid of letting me in."

His eyes were drilling into her now and she couldn't handle it any longer, she spun around and started to stomp away.

"Losing you," he said, barely a whisper.

Not more then five steps away, she stopped walking. Slowly she turned back around to face him. "What was that?" she nearly shouted in disbelief. Looking into his eyes, her anger dissolved. She had only seen him this way once before, so openly vulnerable. He let out a heavy sigh. "I'm afraid of losing you Felicity." Silence filled the room. 'As always, a man of many words' she thought.

"You have my attention," she prompted.

"In the time that I have known you, there has been no one else that can bring out what you have in me. You're like no one I have ever met before and all I know is I need you in my life Felicity. I need you here to make it through the day, rant about random things, and call me out on my shit. I need you to make me feel like not everything I touch is filled with darkness. I need you to make me feel like I have a chance and being a whole person again. So I distance myself. Because I am afraid that if you know who I was and what I did to survive... How many lives I've ruined." He took a deep breath. "I need you Felicity. I need you to remind me that I can be a hero for this city. A hero… for you."

She stared at him, sizing him up wondering if what he said actually came out of his mouth and wasn't one of her reoccurring fantasies. She walked toward him slowly, as you would approach a wild animal. When they were inches from each other she searched his eyes and the sincerity she found there was startling. She reached up and cradled his cheek. "Oliver, I promise you, I am not going anywhere." He leaned into her warm hand and shut his eyes. "but you have to let me in. Okay?" He opened them to see her eyes sparkling up at him with so much love he had never experienced before.

"Okay."

She had an overwhelming urge to pitch forward and kiss him, but she couldn't. She wouldn't allow herself. He wasn't hers. Not yet. He was with Sara. Felicity respected herself too much to allow herself to get into the love disaster that was Oliver and the Lance sisters. For right now helping him put himself back together would be enough. Something told her he would be hers one day and this was a pretty good first step.

She allowed her hand to linger on his cheek for only a moment longer before pulling back completely from him. "Good night, Oliver."

She turned and started to walk away. Before she got out of arms reach his hand flew up and caught her by the shoulder. She looked back and him confused.

"You said that I don't see you, that I don't notice you, but I do." He stepped forward, once again leaving little to no space between their bodies moving his hand from her shoulder to grasp her hand. He continued, "More than I really should, to be honest. I know that before your morning French vanilla coffee there is no use talking to you. I know that when you enter the foundry down the stairs, you always lead with your left foot. I know that 99 percent of the time, your clothing match your mood. When you're feeling happy, it's bright colors. When you're tired you wear darks and neutrals. I know that when you eat something you really like, you do a little dance in your chair and hum quietly to yourself. And I know that none of what I do could be done without you. I see you Felicity. I see you all day long."

She smiled up at him as her stomach did somersaults and her heart nearly exploded in her chest. She squeezed his hand and slowly started to back away.

"I'll see you tomorrow then, Mr. Queen."


End file.
